Everett council still whittling candidates

EVERETT — The City Council is taking an extra week to cut in half a pool of 12 candidates who applied for Shannon Affholter’s former council seat.

All of the applicants took up to five minutes to speak at Wednesday night’s council meeting. The council intends to whittle the field down to six or fewer when they meet again next Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

Interviews with finalists for the position are set for 3 to 6 p.m. Nov. 13. Afterward, at that evening’s regular 6:30 p.m. council meeting, they intend to take final votes. The council expects to swear in the nominee Nov. 20.

The applicants are:

• Stephen Bugge, an Everett Community College student with experience in the freight industry.

• Jim Staniford, a downtown restaurant owner and karate teacher.

• Andrea Sweerus, a middle school behavior intervention teacher.

• Megan Dunn, an academic research analyst and postpartum doula.

• Kim Nieslen, who works with homeless teens and had a past career as a business analyst. She’s the widow of the late City Councilman Drew Nielsen.

• Richard Anderson, a certified public accountant.

• David Simpson, a security officer who served on the City Council from 1998 through 2001.

• Jackie Minchew, an elementary school music teacher; also challenging City Council incumbent Scott Murphy in the Nov. 5 election.